Apple Inc.,

Apparently there was so much demand for it that Apple’s and AT&T’s websites couldn’t handle the surge in orders.  Even with a less than perfect launch, they were still able to sell 600,000 units. 

Being a current iPhone 3G owner, I too am stupefied by Apple’s genius and would love to get my grubby little hands on the new iPhone. The new iPhone 4 comes with a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, 3.5” HD resolution touch screen, and sleeker styling.  But the most anticipated feature has to be the front facing camera that can be used to video chat with other iPhone 4 users.  

One of Apple’s biggest rivals, Microsoft, was breaking some news of their own at the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles, CA.  They unveiled the Kinect “controller” for the Xbox 360. 

The Kinect is an attachment with a high tech motion sensing camera and microphone and makes the Xbox 360 similar to the Wii.  The main difference between the Kinect and Wii is that you don’t need an actual controller in your hand for the Kinect.  That’s right, the Kinect is the controller.  No doubt that Microsoft is going after the Wii’s target market, but they might be a day late and a dollar short on this one. 

Well, for one thing, for all its hyped motion sensing capabilities, the Kinect probably isn’t going to be cheap.  Rumors about its price have put it in the range of around $100 to $150. Considering that you can get a the whole Wii gaming system with a game for around $190, the Kinect sits in a premium price point for being just an accessory for a gaming system that already costs $200. 

However, the Kinect does come packed with some nice features for its price.  For one thing, you just use your hands to navigate any on screen menus and play games.  In addition to controlling the device with just your hand you can also do it by voice commands.  Imagine never having to lift a finger (literally!) to control playback for all of your favorite movies and TV shows.   

While Apple and Microsoft are off releasing new toys to the awaiting public, it’s trendy again to be 3D.  Nintendo debuted their new 3DS handheld gaming system which basically is a, you guessed it, a 3D version of the Nintendo DS.  With its less than impressive execution of 3D technology, it does have one saving grace.  A switch to turn off the 3D.  At Computex, a tradeshow for PC manufacturers held in Tapei,  MSI and Asus released their new 3D PC lines. 

These PCs can show 3D games, movies, photos, and TV.  If you’re tired of the 3D then you just press a switch to come back to 2D.  What would a man who has a 3D PC and a 3D TV to complete his arsenal?  How about a 3D camcorder? 

Hammacher Schlemmer has the answer.  Their new camcorder, listed as item 78649 on the website, shoots 3D video using a 3 megapixel camera and the records video in 640 x 480 pixel resolution.  For $600, I would say it’s more for the amateur “filmmaker” that wants to expand their craft rather than someone looking for a good HD camcorder that doesn’t focus on gimmicks.

Haha…no! It won’t..but I like to be alarmist about these things.

But take a look at the new phone, the Nexus One. According to people who got an early trial by Google, it’s like an Android Version of the Iphone.

The BBC reports:

It will be sold via Google’s website and initially be available on T-mobile in America followed by Vodafone in Europe and Verizon in the US.

Direct from Google it will cost $529 (£331) and on contract with T-Mobile $179 (£112). Google said the phone would ship from launch day.

Mario Queiroz, Google vice president for product management, described the unveiling as “the next stage in the evolution of Android”.

Mr Queiroz said there were now more than 20 Android phones available from 59 carriers in 48 nations.

Read more here.

Read Wired’s review here.

At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data -- including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop."

My mind took a while coming around to this video. Only because I am a crotchety old person that types with one finger- r.e.a.l. s.l.o.w.

But here is an amazing presentation by a guy called Pranav Mistry. Ho Hum, so what’s new you say? Well, this guy is the inventor of SixthSense, a wearable device that enables interactions between the real world and the world of data.

Gobbledygook, you say? No Comprendo? Don’t worry. Just watch this video and you will know what I am yakking about. If you can get past the fact that he SOUNDS like he graduated from an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology, the world’s largest manufacturing hub of high definition geeks), then his ideas are awesome.

About Pranav:
Pranav Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. Before his studies at MIT, he worked with Microsoft as a UX researcher; he’s a graduate of IIT. (Editor’s note: HAH, I TOLD you so!)  Mistry is passionate about integrating the digital informational experience with our real-world interactions.

Some previous projects from Mistry’s work at MIT includes intelligent sticky notes, Quickies, that can be searched and can send reminders; a pen that draws in 3D; and TaPuMa, a tangible public map that can act as Google of physical world. His research interests also include Gestural and Tangible Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, AI, Machine Vision, Collective Intelligence and Robotics.

No, I did not write the above paragraphs, I would never have gotten all those words right, but I ripped the bio off TED.com’s page.

Also, indulge your inner need for visual representation by taking a closer look at this picture.

Aah, my inner-geek has finally found release..now, I know what to do with my hands...aah

But tell me what you think, because I think SixthSense is awesome and it is blowing everybody’s minds.

(Hat Tip: Asitkumar Patel and assorted members of the Patel clan and AkshayV.Rao)

A reporter talks on her cell phone outside the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower on November 27, 2008, hours after the terrorists struck. By Arko Datta/Reuters/Landov.

November 26th would mark the one year anniversary of the carnage in Mumbai, when armed gunmen from Pakistan rampaged through the city by the sea indiscriminately shooting innocent people and taking two five-star hotels hostage.

There was so much that was gruesome about that attack. The sheer brazenness, for one. The fact that someone could just hop off  a boat and start shooting into the crowds.

Then, there was the media coverage – with the Western outlets focusing on the attack as targeting Americans and Britishers and the Indian media falling all over each other, trying to outscoop each other; revealing sensitive information and hampering rescue efforts as they dragged on over 60 hours.

In the end, 117 people were killed in the attacks. Died before their time, because some doped-up, impoverished extremist from a remote valley believed that this would, in some way, be tantamount to achieving whatever it is that he set out to accomplish.

PBS is due to broadcast Secrets of the dead: Mumbai Massacre – a documentary based on the testimonies of those who survived the attacks. It is due to air November 25th.  Check your local listings.  If you don’t live in the United States, you can always catch the documentary a day after its broadcast on the PBS website.

“This film offers an unprecedented, inside view into the attacks,” says Jared Lipworth, executive producer of Secrets of the Dead. “It not only reveals how the victims and terrorists acted during the massacre, it highlights how consumer technologies and social media gave the victims a chance to survive, while also putting them directly into the line-of-fire of the terrorists who were hunting them down.”

The film, made by Australian Elizabeth Pitt, is heart wrenching.

Watching it made me relive the anger and horror I experienced as I watched hour after hour of the non-stop TV coverage of the attacks. I remember being glued to the TV set, ranting on Facebook, G-chatting with friends back home, and checking Twitter for updates. It’s also amazing to note technology’s role in this attacks. From the Perpetrator’s side – there was the use of cell phones, satellite phones, GPS systems and on the Victim’s side – it was text messages from cell phones, blackberries, and I-phones. Nowhere before, have the predators and prey been so wired. It’s chilling to think of how information was used as a weapon and as a means of escape in this incident.

I am not sure what lessons India learned after this attack. But a hat tip to the crazy chaotic nation for not going to war with Pakistan, despite its security being blatantly breached by its rogue neighbor.

For more, read Marie Brenner’s “Anatomy of a Siege” in Vanity Fair (a piece that focussed only on the Taj and its survivors, prompting  author Mira Kamdar to quip “It’s almost as if Ratan Tata commisioned this piece.)